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Topic: Music (Read 10852 times)

Okay, jadies and lentilmen, I'm looking for ideas for music styles, be they cultural or racial or whatever. I frankly don't have much idea when it comes to this sort of thing. Agar had some neat ideas that he listed in the "races' section. And I happened to make music very popular for some odd reason. If you think that's a bad idea, tell me.

Just a quick contribution before lectures start, I would guess the music of the dwarfs, gnome and drow would be significantly different from that of surface dwellers, because of the different acoustics underground. Maybe they would go in for more Gregorian-chant style songs. But I've always imagined dwarfs as being a bit tone deaf, so they'd probably not have much in the way of melody. I don't think they'd have much progression from the tonic chord, so it could sound really monotonous. But I think they'd have really interesting harmonies, possibly octatonic (like Stravinsky), just because I think the scrunchy chords you can get from the octatonic scale (C,C#,Eb,E,F#,G,A,Bb,C) are the sort of thing that would appeal to dwarfs. I'll try recording something that sounds about right and posting it on the alchemy site. Their lyrics would obviously be concerning their great dwarfish heritage, possibly in the style of Wagner's Ring (a la Terry Pratchett). I'll write more later, but I've got lectures to attend!

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"Happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes" - H P Lovecraft, The Festival

Continuing with the theme of underground music I think dwarfish instrumentation is bound to be limited (no trees underground, so it's hard to make woodwind). Maybe their flutes would be metal, or carved from bone. A metallic viol would be an interesting idea, a very characteristic sound! I imagine lots of percussion for dwarfs, drums in particular. Of course they would have horns (made of horn), though they would probably be limited in range to about an octave. In fact I can see most of dwarfish musci taking place within a single octave with not too much variation.

Their music would however be very rhythmical, possibly to help miners hack rhythmically at the ironface in the same way the sailors sang shanties to keep them working in time. I think the majority of interest in dwarfish music would come from very catchy rhythmic experimentation rather than harmonic variation. However the dwarfish dance would have to be slower and less rhythmically diverse due to the dwarfs' limited dexterity. Their ballets (if they had them) would certainly be more Diaghilev than Swan Lake.

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"Happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes" - H P Lovecraft, The Festival

Perhaps the spectrals would have more haunting melodies like middle eastern music, stuff that's good to belly dance to. It just seem to add an air of the exotic and mystic to them. Dances would be a swirl of colors swaying and shifting over each other, very smooth and silky.

The faeries seem more mellow and intellectual than the typical sort, I don't know what to do with them. Maybe folk songs, beverly hillbillies sort of thing...

Amusing thought: a pair of dwarves playing deuling banjos

Cat-kin. Another dilemma. I just imagine thier voices to be screechy like a cat's yowl. Maybe music they can purr to. Blues and Jazz. Rhapsody in blue kinda thing.

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After a brief retirement while I got married and traveled the country, I'm back. Just getting back into the swing of things for now, but gearing up to hit things up like I used to.

Rhapsody in Blue definitely! I think the cats'd play much more elegant-sounding instruments like harpsichords/pianos if they were invented (or harps), and they'd have a lot of wind instruments. I'm also thinking Debussy, whole-tone scales. Maybe there'd be some of what to us would seem like abstract music but to them would seem to have a wholly rigorous structure, because being cat-like they'd have a completely different way of hearing. In fact, their ears could be so different that they had an entirely different tuning system (maybe more like the mean-tone tuning).

I can see the elves also having a different tuning system, with their instruments tuned by perfect fifths so that the notes are more pure than our conventional tuning system.

I think drow would have similar music to that of the elves, but they would make much more use of suspended chords because of the resonant acoustic qualities of the caverns where they live. So it'd be like listening to Barber's Adagio in the bathroom. Of course their fascination with mechanisms would probably mean a strict rhythmical measure.

Gnomes are obviously going to be into gnomy music, like Liszt's Gnomenreichen or Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King. It would probably be played on a mix of bagpipe, celeste and bassoon for that extra gnomesque touch. They'd have lots of earthy instruments like oboes, bassoons, clarinets and low viols.

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"Happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes" - H P Lovecraft, The Festival

Besides drums, perhaps also an instrument based on wooden wind chimes. (I am musically illiterate, I am sure there is some kind of instrument like it) Some woodwind pan pipe type thing, but for banging on with sticks.

I sort of put them in their own league. They don't really liking extended notes, but like sharp bangs or clacks or hollow bangs (sorry if I am getting too technical for you). Everything is quick and sharp like beating on a tree with a stick, but more formal and methodical. Not many can appreciate it, but the intelligence of the Centaur could probably explain it somehow.

Some kinda bamboo xylophone? Glockenspiel (sp?) Perhaps set differently, upright like a harp and banged on like those big drums that they guys in diapers hit. (arern't I specific?) I don't imagine centaurs wanting to sit on a bench and lean a harp on them.

Would centaurs have a different sense of timing with they patten hoves fall when galloping? Living a life with a rythum in your bones all day could have an effect.

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After a brief retirement while I got married and traveled the country, I'm back. Just getting back into the swing of things for now, but gearing up to hit things up like I used to.

If you made the whole world musical, why exclude the poor goblins again, shame on you racists! It is not they would not like music at all, it is just no one likes their music, and they do not like no one else's. If we think goblin, we may think filthy, but we must think noisy. Imagine great destructive parties, with music made from any instruments found or created on the spot, made by people (goblins) without any musical education or ability. Goblins surely like music of their own.

Remember the story of George the Unlucky, a bard chased by an entire goblin tribe, who, in the direst moments improvised goblin music with a sword, pot, and a mistreated pony, and was so succesful, that they kept him for three years for all their parties, till he could escape. George lives now as a hermit, as far from any music as possible. Even now, if he hears some good tunes, he must cry and get depressed, while bad tunes make him afraid of goblins. Us musik not for da week! goblins explain.

I can only imagine it being an athomsphere type thing, hopfully selected beforehand. Can't picture just channel surfing through the talk radio shows to find a station that plays music to give birth by. Playing the instument yourself sounds even worse. If you can give birth while playing a violin, you either have far too much talent or are some REALLY[/i] good sh!t.

Now having others playing instrumens sounds like the beginings of a really good ceremony the various races could practice. Different performances for births, marriages, deaths, honeymoons,etc. Good way to get inspiration for a detailed culture.

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After a brief retirement while I got married and traveled the country, I'm back. Just getting back into the swing of things for now, but gearing up to hit things up like I used to.

What about orks? If goblins have music, then orks should too. I would think that they have a lot of deep and booming instruments like Japanese Taiko drummers. And of course, war horns. We can't forget war horns! Unlike goblin music, ork music would be recongnizable, but other races would rarely hear it unless they were at war with the orks.

Well, of course they would Orcs were created by the Fantasy Mastermind. He basicaly created the Idea of a whole world. Music and all.

I have an inkling that maybe, the goblins and dwarves music is mostly basssounding. Deep and completly rythem. No jumps skips or hops. They like rythem because it represents how they live, get up, dig/battle, and go to sleep. Deep Drums are used, along with the horns. Not much varity.

But on the top ground stuff up there, Elves and pixies/fairies use the highinstruments. Flutes and pickilo (sp?) along with a plethera of other things.None of their music sounds exactly alike, and anyone who hears it seems to be enchanted. They beg for a orcestra to fallow them where ever they must go.

And where would we be with out the Hobbits? Just kidding

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Trees!!!A tree fell in the forest. A man didn't hear it. He is now dead.

Well, then again, giving dwarves and goblins and orks deep music is a little cliche'. I can see orkish war-drums and dwarven horns, but what's not to say the dwarves don't make their music as intricate as they sometimes make their jewelry and crafts? Goblins, I see mostly howls and screeches and shouts, no real "music" to speak of, maybe small drums.

You try finding some one better. He is the best. You could always go to the librarey. Look up the mythical creatures. I bet Tolkien comes up and J.K. Rowling. I am not A HP geek but the books are well written.

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Trees!!!A tree fell in the forest. A man didn't hear it. He is now dead.

Imagine if the medieval times had Daft Punk around? It would be party zone twenty four seven! I can just imagine the little gnomes gettin' their groove on. Maybe some Sarah McLachlan to really stir up the emotions, some Nine Inch Nails to get the rock goin, some Goo Goo Dolls to set the tranquil, emo mood...It's all good.

I just thought of an idea that is perfect for the dwarves, since these instruments can be made entirely of metal, and have a very unique sound. If any of you have ever heard the Katimba, you should immediately understand. It is a traditional African instrument made either of a wooden or metal cupped resonating chamber, with several tabs extending over the body. These tabs are plucked with the thumbs, creating a haunting, very unique sound that can be heard a surprising distance away. Another idea, although this one is for the centaurs, would be a marimba. Percussive, yet smooth... And the tuned wooden tubes do exist. It is a traditional Indonesian instrument called an angklung. I can go on forever, but I won't. There are hundreds of unique instruments perfect for virtually any setting. I do think, however, that to offset the percussion, the centaurs should play the carynx. There just isn't a scarier instrument in the world, and unless you want the centaurs to be cute and cuddly, scary is a good way to go.